US military aircraft conducted at least three rounds of airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Iraq on Friday. This time there are reports of IS militant casualties, CBS News reported.

All of the bombings occurred around Erbil, the capital city of
the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, including on a target
northwest the city, CNN reported. The first strike took place
Friday morning, when US jets bombed
IS positions in the northern part of the country.

The second strike was conducted with a US military drone, which
likely fired a Hellfire missile, CNN’s Barbara Starr reported.
Hellfires are known for their precision during bombings. That
attack was on a mortar position. Militants left the scene, and
when they returned, they were attacked by a different US asset.

About an hour later, a more comprehensive strike occurred, when
four F/A-18 naval jets attacked a stationary convoy of seven IS
vehicles, as well as a different mortar position. A total of
eight bombs, likely 500-lbs, GPS-guided bombs that are the
“weapon of choice” for attacking mobile targets and
avoiding civilian casualties, Starr said.

The jets are likely flying combat air patrols and attacking
targets as they see them, CNN’s Pentagon reporter added.

US Vice President Joe Biden spoke via telephone with Iraqi
President Fuad Masum on Friday and addressed the American strikes
in northern Iraq, as well as the need for Iraq to build a new
government.

"The Vice President emphasized the threat ISIL presented to
all Iraqis and affirmed the US commitment to support Iraq and all
of its citizens - from north to south - as they work to defend
the country against this international threat," the White
House said in a statement.

Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told
CBS that it wasn’t clear how many Islamic State jihadists
might have been killed in the strike.

In the Friday morning strike, two F/A-18 aircraft took off from
the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush in the Persian Gulf. They
dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece
that was shelling the Peshmerga (armed Kurdish fighters) near
Erbil, Kirby said. US personnel, including an American consulate,
are based in the city.

During the Friday afternoon press briefing, White House press
secretary Josh Earnest said the US would conduct strikes to
protect American personnel, prevent humanitarian crises, or to
help unite Iraqi security forces against the ISIS insurgents.

The order to carry out the strikes came from the US Central
Command commander after President Barack Obama authorized the use
of force on Thursday, Kirby said.

“Today, America is coming to help,” the president said
in his Thursday announcement, noting that although the United
States “cannot and should not” intervene every time
there’s a crisis in the world, it must act when innocent people
are facing violence on a horrific scale.

"I therefore authorized targeted airstrikes, if necessary, to
help forces in Iraq as they fight to break the siege at Mount
Sinjar and protect the civilians trapped there," Obama said.
"We can act carefully and responsibly to prevent a potential
act of genocide."

Obama said the military will be used to help protect Christians
and Yazidis, an ethnic Kurdish minority in northern Iraq.

The US has also begun dropping relief supplies to the refugees.
Around 40,000 Yazidis - members of the Kurdish community whose
religious beliefs are a mix of ancient Zoroastrianism, Islam, and
Christianity - sought
refuge on Mount Sinjar last weekend after Islamic State
fighters continued their march toward the Kurdish power center of
Erbil.

Baghdad has also sent helicopters to drop supplies to people on
the mountain, though the amounts were limited.